St George Illawarra: Griffin not kicking stones over Panthers hook

Griffin steered the Panthers to the finals in his first two seasons at the foot of the mountains and had them in the hunt for a top-four finish to 2018 when he was unceremoniously dumped with four games remaining in the regular season.

It came amid a well-publicised falling out with then Panthers football manager Phil Gould and tentative suggestions he was off with his playing group.

It's the obvious story-line as he prepares to come up against the Panthers for the first time on Friday, but Griffin said he was always felt the Penrith gig would not be his last as an NRL coach.

"Coaching's a brutal business and there's only so many jobs to go around," Griffin said.

"Sometimes you've got to be a little bit patient. The most important thing is that you believe in yourself and you continue to chase what you want to do.

"I was always confident that, as long as I wanted to keep coaching, that was the most important thing, there'd be a time where I'd get another opportunity."

In an ironic twist, Griffin was moved on for the man he initially replaced in Ivan Cleary, who brought about his own messy exit from the Tigers.

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With Cleary having steered the young Panthers to last year's grand final, there's few regrets at Penrith. Griffin doesn't have any either.

"Not much," he said when asked what he'd have done differently.

"It was a long time ago I haven't really thought about it too much. I made a contribution while I was there which I think helped the club. It's just footy, things like that happen.

"I'm better for the resilience of the whole situation. Whether you're a coach, or a parent or a carpenter, a school teacher, there's times in your life where things, at the time, don't go the way you want them to.

"When you look back with a clearer head down the track you normally figure out those periods helped you become a little bit more resilient, a better person, better coach, better leader. That's the way I approach things."

He also insists he's not bitter over the Panthers subsequent success despite having handed the likes of Nathan Cleary, Jarome Luai, Dylan Edwards, Viliame Kickau, James Fisher-Harris and Tyrone May their NRL debuts.

"I wouldn't say [I take] pride, I just did my job while I was there," Griffin said.

"I made a contribution to the club as did a lot of people. Ivan was there before I got there and he's done a great job with them over the last couple of years.

"It's one of the great things in coaching to be able to give young guys a debut in the NRL and there were a fair few of those guys I was fortunate enough to have an involvement with at that stage of their career.

"The Penrith club's done that for a long time, they've got massive junior base and now they've got a team that's been built from within. They've done a great job over the last couple of years and they've really matured.

"They're obviously a benchmark side in the competition and they've earned the right to be there. It's nice to see how far they've gone with their careers and how they're going now, we just don't want them to play too well [on Friday]."

The match is likely to see the return of Nathan Cleary from a serious shoulder injury. He's remarkably yet to drop a game this season, steering the Panthers to 12 straight wins before being halted by injury in Origin II.

The Panthers have gone a healthy 5-3 without their skipper, but his return ahead of the finals is a welcome one for the Penrith faithful.

"I said last week he was more unlikely to play than play, this week he's more likely to play than not," coach Ivan Cleary said on Thursday.

"We've still got a training session to get through but, at this stage, he's a good chance."

Griffin is expecting the 23-year-old star to want to make up for lost time in a match his own side must win to stay in the finals hunt.

"He's been in magnificent form even though he's been out for a couple of months," Griffin said.

"He'll be busting to play. I heard he wanted to play last week and was a bit disappointed that he didn't get the opportunity.

"We're expecting him to play and we're expecting him to want to jump straight in to where he left off around Origin time when he was in great form. That's the way we've prepared."